Tell us about the Twinkie just one more time, Egon, please…
by Grim Shea, 02/24/2014
The world has lost one of our generation’s great entertainment pioneers in Harold Ramis, who passed away Monday of complications from the rare disease autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis.
Though not as well known as his early peers such as Bill Murray, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, or Chevy Chase, Ramis was nevertheless a driving force in almost any project you could think of involving those performers and many more. He appeared onscreen a number of times – most famously as Egon Spengler, the nerdy straight man on the iconic Ghostbusters team – but was the writer and/or director of some of the greatest comedies of our collective childhood: Animal House, Stripes, Caddyshack, Meatballs, Back to School, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Armed and Dangerous, Groundhog Day… Jesus, the list goes on! Even in recent years he had hits with Analyze This, Muliplicity, several episodes of The Office, and, arguably, Year One. And the fact that Judd Apatow, current godfather of the modern comedy, has repeatedly called out Ramis for being his biggest inspiration shouldn’t be taken lightly. We at Matty P remember and thank you, Mr. Ramis. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to go watch Vacation for the thousandth time until we feel better.
